On the brink: micromammals from the latest Villanyian from Bıçakçı (Anatolia)

Abstract

The locality of Bıçakçı (Çameli basin, Anatolia) has yielded a diverse fauna of micromammals. The arvicolines are the most diverse and abundant group. Their stage in evolution shows that the fauna is late Villanyian in age and can be placed in the lower part of the zone P of the Anatolian Neogene biozonation. Thus, it is on the brink of the important Villanyian/Biharian transition. The presence of three species of hamster, in combination with the occurrence of Borsodia, a high abundance of Kalymnomys and a near absence of insectivores, suggests a dry, open landscape. However, the important contribution of Clethrionomys in the vole fauna indicates the nearby presence of woodlands. Overall, the environment at the time of deposition appears to have been similar to that of the area today. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A multiproxy study of the early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic conditions of an anastomosed fluvial sequence from the Çameli Basin (SW Anatolia, Turkey)

“…The Lycian hinterland contains a series of late Miocene-early Pleistocene aged NE-SW oriented extensional basins including Çal, Sandıklı, Karacasu, Yatağan, Baklan, Acıgöl, Burdur, Çameli and Eşen basins (Cihan et al, 2003;Alçiçek et al, 2005Alçiçek et al, , 2006Alçiçek, 2007;Alçiçek and Ten Veen, 2008;Ten Veen et al, 2009;Alçiçek et al, 2012;Kaya et al, 2012;Alçiçek and Jiménez-Moreno, 2013;Helvacı et al, 2013;Alçiçek et al, 2013aAlçiçek et al, , 2013bSulpizio et al, 2013;Alçiçek and Alçiçek, 2014;Van den Hoek Ostende, 2015a, 2015bJiménez-Moreno et al, 2015Alçiçek, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2016). These late Miocene-early Pleistocene aged sub-parallel graben-type depressions are considered as "orogen-top basins" with a synchronic tripartite fill of alluvial, fluvial and lacustrine depositional settings (Alçiçek, 2007;Alçiçek et al, 2015;Alçiçek et al, 2016).…”

“…The age of basin-fill succession has been well articulated as late Miocene (mammal units MN9-12; Vallesian-Turolian chronozones) to early Pleistocene (mammal unit MN17; latest Villanyian chronozone) based on terrestrial macro-and micro-mammal associations (Şenel, 1997a, 1997b, 1997cAlçiçek, 2001;Saraç, 2003;Alçiçek et al, 2005;Akdeniz, 2011;Van den Hoek Ostende et al, 2015a, 2015b.…”

“…The tectonic development and palaeogeographic evolution of the basin were introduced by Alçiçek (2001) and Alçiçek et al (2005Alçiçek et al ( , 2006. The first detailed study on the fossil faunal and floral assemblages of the Bıçakçı succession has been done by Van den Hoek Ostende et al (2015a, 2015b and Jiménez-Moreno et al (2015). However, an integrated approach including combining sedimentology, floral and faunal evidence as well as stable isotope geochemistry is hitherto lacking.…”

“…et al, 1995Saraç, 2003;Demirel and Mayda, 2014;Van den Hoek Ostende et al, 2015a, 2015bJiménez-Moreno et al, 2015). This record allows us to assess the evolutionary and ecological responses of fauna and flora to habitat and climate change over millions of years, providing a better understanding of the drivers of biotic change from the ecological to the evolutionary scales including ecosystem processes (Van Dam et al, 2006).…”

Ericek, a new Pliocene vertebrate locality in the Çameli Basin (southwestern Anatolia, Turkey)

“…It soon became clear that there were intriguing differences among the preserved vertebrate remains at the two localities: Bıçakçı yielded mainly large numbers of rodent teeth, whereas Ericek was rich in fish teeth and bones, yielded some amphibian and reptile bones and-compared to Bıçakçı-contained relatively few micromammal molars. The fauna and palaeoenviromental setting of Bıçakçı and its age determination have recently been reported ( Van den Hoek Ostende et al 2015), with the palaeoenvironment at the very end of the Villanyian, at around 2 Ma, shown to consist of open landscapes. Here, we present a first attempt at reconstructing the environment at Ericek.…”